Creating Your Virtual Avatar/Character

Welcome back fellow gamers! Today I want to discuss the importance of your virtual Avatar and how people feel connected to their characters. As I mentioned in my intro blog post a few weeks ago, I talked about how in World Of Warcraft, there was this creation screen you see above (link to it here) and how interactive the creating process was. Unfortunately, that was only a small part of the whole process and there is so much more that goes into your avatar that you think only subconsciously.

First off, for anyone new, this "Avatar" that I speak of is pretty much your user representation in the video game like the man standing in the picture above. When logging into the game for the first time as that character, that is who would appear to others and when you walked around in game, people would see that character. It does not look as appealing but do not fret, that is from multiple expansions ago in the case of that game and so the newest iterations currently look way more appealing...

Now seeing THAT avatar, you can only help but feel like that is a really really cool looking character (link to that picture here). But besides the look that they give you, there is actually really interesting things we all choose when we are making our avatars. Avatar Identification is such a real concept that research from a Games and Culture article published this year talks about how, "game users tend to see their avatar as having an idealized version of their body and personality" and also that "game users with weight issues and smaller personality discrepancies reportedly tended to feel more satisfied and attached to their online selves" (You, Kim, Lee, 2017). This denotes some underlying confidence issues that many gamers have and a big reason that people turn to games like this, anonymity. Being able to make a character and have him/her become great and in turn you being great at the game makes you feel good.

These games have an underlying beneficial impact on our well-being because if our virtual lives are good, it helps us forget of any problems we may face in the real world. While we do like to make a seemingly "better-looking" character if we have those confidence issues, it's still important to note that YOU make that character and it is still YOU out there. An article from psychologyofgames.com talks about how people "create slightly idealized avatars based on their actual selves." This much I understand because I have struggled with wanting to weigh less and wanting to create a character that I thought would garner respect and definitely it attracted me more to my characters because I was creating them from a place in my subconscious that made me feel better. And looking at the characters I own and creating cool names for them made me feel good and that is something that I think GREATLY benefits everyone. Phew! That was a lot to talk about but for anyone interested again, check out some of these games, I know I only specifically talk about World Of Warcraft because that is my favorite MMORPG but really any will suffice. Check out a free trial, make a badass character that you imagine up, and go out there and have fun and be immersed in it. I'll talk to you all next week! Thanks!


Citation:

    You, S., Kim, E., & Lee, D. (2017). Virtually Real: Exploring Avatar Identification in Game Addiction Among Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG) Players. Games And Culture, 12(1), 59-60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1555412015581087